NEWPORT BEACH : Anti-Smog Proposal OKd for City Staff

A plan to encourage city employees to car-pool or take public transportation has been approved by the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

It was the city’s second proposal to reduce smog and air pollution to be submitted to the AQMD, which began requiring annual smog-reduction plans from employers of more than 100 people in its five South Coast counties in 1987.

The city’s first plan, submitted in August, included 12 incentives for its estimated 1,000 workers to double up in cars or ride bicycles to work. But AQMD officials rejected the plan after ruling that it lacked sufficient economic incentives.

City Traffic Engineer Richard Edmonston said the original plan included a bike-loan program and preferential parking for car-pool motorists. But he conceded that the original plan did not include enough incentives--economic or otherwise--to encourage motorists to change their habits.

The revised plan includes an option that would give employees extra time off for car-pooling or using an alternative means of transportation to get to three city sites--City Hall on Newport Boulevard, the corporate yard on 16th Street and the Police Department on Santa Barbara Drive.

Edmonston said city officials envision adding a line or box to employees’ time sheets to determine the method used to get to work. Administrators plan to assign points to various methods and eventually award days off based on accumulated points, a proposal that Edmonston said would be cost-effective.

“This doesn’t take money out of the treasury to give them a day off,” he said.

Edmonston added that he will begin contacting consultants next week for advice on how to enact the plan, which he hopes to implement over six months.

Shahir Gobran, the city’s associate civil engineer, said that for every 100 cars in the county, 90% carry just one person and the remaining 10% carry an average of two people during commuting hours. The county’s goal is to triple the number of cars with two people.